Trigger
by Megatron's Blackfire
Summary: Lockdown comes home to find a rather shocking turn of events. Slash. Use of Pretenders/Transformers-as-humans.


Trigger

Lockdown had never felt more tired in his life. Living as a human in a Pretender body was the absolute worst idea the Autobots had ever come up with for punishment. Not only was he stuck on Earth all the time with no access to his ship, supplies, or clients, he was stuck in the guise of a weak flesh-creature. It was disgusted as well as degrading but there was little he could do to counter it. He was regarded as a Decepticon so he was stuck here as punishment for his crimes.

He sighed as he trudged up towards the little cottage he had secured far away from the city of Detroit. Sure it was a pain in the aft to make the commute to work every day, but it made up for it with the peace and quiet. There were no cars zooming by at odd hours of the day and no excess noise from noisy human sparklings that lived too close for his liking. Nope, this little cottage in the middle of nowhere was much more to his liking, no matter the cost of gas and oil on this ridiculous mudball planet.

He walked up to the front door and pushed the door open. He froze as he was struck with a very strong sense of _wrong_. He looked around in surprise and apprehension, trying to figure out where his anxiety was originating from. He remained still for a long time before he picked up the faintest sob in the very still background of the cottage. His spark froze for a second as he felt fear race down his spine before he bolted into the house, down the small hallway, and burst into the living room with his right arm already transformed into a metallic hook.

What he found was not what he was expecting. He was expecting to see his mate bleeding out on the floor with his body torn open. Instead, he found his mate sitting on the couch with his face in his hands and sobbing uncontrollably but quietly. His usually strictly-kept long black hair was hanging in his face in a matted mess and the very ends of his sharp nails were hidden in the fringe of his scalp. Lockdown stared at his mate for a long time, his spark hammering in its casing as he took in the smears on his mate's hands.

Blood, still bright red, covered his mate's long, delicate fingers. He stumbled forward as his hook changed back into a hand and he collapsed at his mate's knees, one hand resting on the bony joint to get his attention. Brilliant blue eyes met his as his mate jumped in surprise and snapped his head up to look at him. Tears were streaming freely down his delicate face and he wiped at them angrily as he whispered incoherently to himself. He just ended up smearing more blood all over his face and made it mix with his tears.

Lockdown touched his mate's face, gently rolling it into his massive palm, and rubbing away the bloody tears. "Prowl," he whispered softly, "what happened?"

"I didn't mean to," he whispered, his voice still making Lockdown's body shudder at how very wrong it was. "I didn't have a choice. He...I didn't... Oh, Lockdown, what have I done?"

Lockdown let the distraught mech fall into his arms off the couch and he held the smaller mech tightly to him. He could feel the bulge on the other's chest pressing into him and he still did not like it. Prowl, his wonderful ninja-bot with more spark and spunk than any mech he had met in his entire life, had taken a female human form as his Pretender body. He claimed it had been to make them more acceptable to society because humans were still against same-sex marriages, but Lockdown sensed there was another reason. He had a small inkling that it was to feel all the strange body parts that the female of the human species had. It was probably also a small homage to that techno-organic brat of the Autobots that suddenly developed the idea that she was better than everyone else.

"Prowl, Prowl," he whispered softly as he held his mate close. "What's wrong? What happened?"

Prowl shook his head, long black hair swaying with the movement, and pointed a shaky hand towards the doorway. He looked up, following the shaking path towards the wall and felt his mouth fall open in shock. A dead man was propped against the wall, a hole blown through the gap between his eyes. His face was covered in blood and the eyes were closed, hiding the vacant stare that would have accompanied the dead man's gaze. He was dressed head-to-toe in black and he had a hunch that the man had planned on robbing from them.

He had to admire Prowl's handiwork; it was a nice clean shot. He knew that Prowl was horribly against killing of other sentient creatures so commenting on the shot would not have been smart. He rubbed his mate's back as he covered his face again and let out a shaky sob. He wailed that he had not had a choice and that the man was going to hurt him and Barricade. Lockdown asked where he found the gun and Prowl lifted his hand up before it moulded into a simple blaster.

"I had an upgrade before I came to Earth," he murmured in his far too feminine voice. "I thought I would need it against the other Decepticons...I never thought I would use it on a human."

Lockdown hugged him tightly before reassuring him that everything was going to be alright. Prowl paused for a second before pulling away and walking swiftly into the kitchen to wash his hands off. He muttered the whole way about acting foolishly and how the human court system would understand that he had fired in self-defence. Lockdown smiled as he stood up and set to work cleaning up the mess Prowl had left with all of the blood and bits of bone. He could hear the water running in the other room and was reassured that everything was going to be alright.

He paused as he heard a soft wail rise up and he called to Prowl to see if he was going to check. Prowl snorted and called him lazy before he swept past him into the hallway. He smirked before rising to follow him, walking slowly after him as he turned at the front door to head up the stairs to the bedrooms. Lockdown easily took the stairs two at a time, smirking as he had a nice view of his mate's well-shaped aft as he reached the landing. He vanished into the room and the soft wail that had been present the whole time died down instantly.

He smiled as he walked into the room and watched as Prowl cradled the little bundle of wires to his chest. The sparkling, Barricade, was theirs, created just prior to being stuck in these Pretender bodies. Prowl had made the request shortly after his return from the Well of All Sparks and Lockdown had only hesitated for a few minutes before agreeing to help sire a sparkling. When he had been boarding the ship that was taking all of the Decepticons to Earth, Prowl had walked up with a small smirk on his now feminine face and requested to know if he had thought he was getting out of everything so easily.

It had taken a second for him to realize that the stunning human female speaking to him with a small sparkling sleeping against her chest was Prowl. He had created quite a stir with his Autobot companions, none of them able to understand why he wanted to spend the rest of his existence on Earth, trapped in a femme's Pretender body, and stay with a Decepticon. To them, Prowl replied that he wanted a vast change to his normally mundane lifestyle. To Megatron, himself, and the other Decepticons, he claimed that the Allspark was losing trust in the Autobots for the treatment of so many of its creations. He had stared right at Megatron as the Decepticon leader lounged in his impressive Pretender body as he stated that the Decepticons would rise up again and finally claim Cybertron, but it would not be for many, many years.

Until then, Prowl had stated, they would have to get use to the Pretender bodies and human food. Megatron had let out a soft chuckle before commenting that he had never expected the young ninja-bot to ever side with him after the valiant efforts he showed to get rid of him. Prowl had smiled weakly before stating that things were done when they need to be and loyalties will shift if the original recipients suddenly started treating the owner differently. Lockdown had understood the hidden message immediately; Prowl was being treated like a drone because he had returned so late from the Well of All Sparks. Amongst the Decepticons, he was treated as an equal of sorts when the higher-ranked officers spoke to him.

A soft whine from Barricade brought Lockdown back to the waking world. The little mech was staring at him over Prowl's shoulder as his carrier gently rocked him. His big red optics blinked for a moment before he let out a happy gurgle and reached for him. Lockdown smiled as he walked forward and stroked his sparkling's cheek, glancing down at Prowl as he smiled and kissed Barricade's cheek. The sparkling would be the first Decepticon born in eons and Prowl wanted him to be brought up away from Autobot optics. He was determined to make Barricade both powerful and independent with proper morals that would befit any warrior.

Lockdown looked out the window at the setting sun and decided to wait until nightfall to dispose of the body. For now, he was content to just stay with his family as Prowl rocked and comforted their sparkling. Living as a Pretender was difficult, but it was worth it if Prowl and Barricade were always waiting for him.

**Author's note:** Just something to make up for the lack of updates on the other stories lately. This little number just popped into my head the other day and Prowl for some reason demanded to be a woman. I'm not sure why, but he demanded it, the strange little ninja. Oh well, it was fun to write. The dead guy? No idea who he was just someone who was unfortunate enough to come between a carrier and its sparkling.


End file.
